About

I am Kate, a graphic designer and proud cat lady. I run a small visual and graphic design studio, and I am the founder of Skill Exchange, a community-based workshop series designed to encourage self-reliance through social skill exchange. I operate both out of my one-woman design studio in San Francisco.

Originally from Seattle, my partner and I moved to San Francisco together in 2009, and we are the proud co-parents of two four cats. My blog is a combination of my work, side projects, and other things. Content changes with my interests, but you can count on design projects, cat photos, cooking, occasional recipes, and lots of self-reliance experiments.

Frequently asked questions:

Can I hire you for custom design work?
Yes! I am available for custom graphic design, branding, web design and photo styling. Have a project in mind? Use the contact page to start a conversation about your new project!

Did you design this blog? What wordpress theme is this? Can you design my blog?
The WordPress theme I used is Bueno. I did all the custom CSS edits myself. WordPress featured my CSS customizations in a post on their blog, which may answer a few questions for you. I am available for website and blog visual design projects, but I do not currently offer WordPress customizations or web development as a service. If you’re looking for visual design + development, I work with web developers who can help bring your web project to life.

What is Skill Exchange, and where did it start?
Skill Exchange was inspired by my MFA Design thesis at California College of the Arts in 2011. I wrote my thesis on the environmental, cultural and economic impact of the devaluation of self-reliance. Skill Exchange is now a community-based event service offering carefully curated public and private workshops to teach and share traditional, self-reliance and handmaking skills. To learn more about Skill Exchange, visit SkillExchangeSF.com/faq/

Can I hire Skill Exchange for my corporate event/birthday party/neighborhood event/etc? 
Yes! You can! Skill Exchange is available for both public and private events, ranging from afternoon workshops at your workplace to private multi-session workshops tailored to suit your specific community, office or company event. To start the conversation, visit the Skill Exchange contact page.

Are you available to come speak at my university/event about your work? 
I accept speaking engagements on a limited basis depending on schedule and location. Email me directly to start a conversation about scheduling a visit!

What is “Mi Piace Kate” and how do you say it?
Mi Piace Kate is pronounced: Me pee-ah-chay Kate. In Italian, it means Kate is pleasing to me, or very simply, I like Kate. I studied Italian while getting my BA at The University of Washington, and I studied abroad in Italy a handful of times (I majored in Comparative History of Ideas with an emphasis in Italian Studies, to be exact). I lived and worked in Rome for a year after college, and well, this blog is a version of a version of a blog I kept during that time.

Who is your Intern? Does he really work for you?
This is a trick guys! Intern isn’t really my intern. rather he is my partner, and we’re in love. He is lovingly known as Intern on my blog. He cooks, he wears fancy socks, he cat-wrangles, and he loves typewriters. He has a real name and a real job, but he prefers to be a little discrete on the internet.

Do you really have four cats? What kind of cats are they? Do they all get along?
Yes! We do have four cats, and they really do get along. It took some time, and a lot of catnip to bring them all together, but they love each other now. The big cats Sofia  (8 years) and Lucca (5 years) and both are Snowshoe Siamese. The smaller two are siblings, Muuli and Neebu (2 years) and they are Bengals. All four are rescue cats. We can’t really recommend the four cat lifestyle, but we can’t imagine life without them either.

Anything else?
Please say hello! Email me at mipiacekate [at] gmail.com. I do not accept paid advertisements on my blog, but I do like email from friendly readers!